Map of the 2015 Puppy Kerfuffle [Update V0.4]

Being a map of the head-space of Camestros Felapton based upon his voyages during the Great Puppy Kerfuffle of 2015.

A key to the map is given below and version notes and previous maps are given below.

Key to the Map

Name, description, URL (not for Facebook because I don’t get it) and ⚔ description of issue that arose. Note the descriptions of issues are DRAFT and meant to be short and limited. If I get it wrong please say so and I’ll fix. Nothing is intended to be provocative or restart old arguments. 🙂 … but yeah

Hines, Jim C Hines blog http://www.jimchines.com/ ⚔ Blogged some notable criticism of the Puppies and also collated a selection of quotes by notable Puppies. Publicized Lou Antonelli’s claim to have alerted Spokane Police warning them about David Gerrold

GRRM LJ, Not a Blog George RR Martin’s Live Journal http://grrm.livejournal.com/ ⚔ several posts on the Puppy campaign with several visits to the comment by Brad Torgersen.

Gerrold FB, David Gerrold’s Facebook page ⚔ several posts on the Puppies and Gerrold if Guest of Honour at Sasquan. Gerrold was also the subject of a letter sent by Lou Antonelli to the Spokane Police (later withdrawn)

Deidre Saoirse Moen, http://deirdre.net/blog/ Early post giving a guide on how to vote No Award on Puppy nominees.

Sandifer, Philip Sandifer’s blog http://www.philipsandifer.com/ ⚔ Early post on voting No Award on all categories. Lengthy analysis of the Puppy campaign (focused on Rabids and Vox Day) leading to visit from Brad Torgersen in comments section. Later podcast with Vox Day reviewing John C Wright’s puppy nominated story ‘One Bright Star’ and Iain Banks’s Wasp Factory

Amazing Stories, amazingstoriesmag.com/?s=puppy Early announcement of possible Puppy success in nominations. Early advocate of No Award and multiple Puppy related stories.

Flint, Eric Flint blog, http://www.ericflint.net/ Flint is a leftwing author published by Baen, critical of the WorldCon establishment but also critic of the Puppies ⚔ His analysis caused some consternation on multiple sides.

Baen’s Bar, Baen’s online forum http://bar.baen.com/ probably shouldn’t be a separate island but let’s assume I was too lazy to try to circumnavigate and just thought it was an island.

English, Kary English’s blog http://karyenglish.com/ Kary English was nominated by Puppies and did not withdraw her nomination but has been critical of Rabid Puppies and Vox Day ⚔ Her open letter to Puppies was the strongest criticism of the Puppy movement from a Puppy nominee who hadn’t withdrawn http://karyenglish.com/2015/06/an-open-letter-to-puppies-and-everyone/

This Way to Texas, Lou Antonelli’s blog http://louantonelli.blogspot.com.au/ and also Facebook page ⚔ warned Spokane Police about David Gerrold but later apologized – only for the issue to spring back to life due to his later actions

The Amazon Empire – threat to traditional publishing? Hope for indie publishers? Or destroyer of bookshops and exploiter of authors? Not directly involved but a lurking presence… https://www.amazon.com

GamerGate – A separate video game kerfuffle. Vox Day aligns himself with GamerGate. Rumours abound about possible GamerGate involvement in the nomination process but with no evidence of any significant role.

Version 0.4

John C Wright respectfully asked if L J Lamplighter’s position on the map could be altered as she is not aligned with Rabid Puppies per-se.

Version 0.3

Brad Torgersen’s surname had a typo – for which I both burn with shame and yet oddly surprised that there aren’t more.

Laura Mixon has been given an island. In some ways her nominated work for this years Hugo is not Puppy related but when I started an early draft of a timeline I found that references to the significant past fandom controversy were part of the broader narrative. As she has had some books published by Tor I put her island nearish the Tor Sea.

Compass rose added. The map is orientated Up and Down and This way and That way.

Various requests:

A tank added at Marmot gulch but unfortunately it got a bit crowded and additionally Marmot Gulch sort of violated my policy of not using names given by others. The tank is better and people can apply their own semiotic approach to it.

A manatee added just off shore from Monster Hunter Nation due to multiple Puppy requests. It sorts of looks a bit like a beaver or a platypus but it was the best I could do. To make room MHN was made smaller.

There were multiple Rabid requests for various things in Voxpopoli. Given the tanke as well I could only really neatly do one. A skull shaped mountain replaced a regular mountain. Spooky!

The Gyre of FUD is a dangerous maelstrom that wanders the Sea of Fandom and capture wary sailors in a cycle of endless discussion that seem to go nowhere. Originally it was supposed to be named after Brian Z but that would either be an unnecessary insult or an unwarranted ego boost. People may apply their own FUD source to it.

Wind cherubs requested by Kurt Busiek. I totally failed at drawing a cherub blowing winds upon the Puppy lands but then I remembered my beagle heads. Now gentle beagles go off in a huff.

Various re-orientations, changes to landmasses, sizes, islands etc. All excellent notions but I have to stop. Consider the inaccuracies as realistic reflection of the errors in a voyager’s map.

Version 0.2

The revised version is here. Thanks to File770 folks for suggestions and also thanks to the puppy love for the map. Maps are the ultimate political statement disguised at an attempt at objective fact – so please see this as this particular socialist’s skewed perspective (but I’ve attempted some fairness). Some have expressed concern regarding relative sizes of land – do not be misled! It is the seas that represent fandom 🙂 and we all sail upon them – or we are merpeople or maybe selkies or something.

I’ve also included some sites mentioned in Sarah Hoyt’s recent account of how she saw the kerfuffle. Publishing houses appear as Greek-style temples. I’ve stuck with the crossed swords for places where significant disputes were centered or notable discussions or announcements took place. Places beyond greater fandom are marked as being off the map with green arrows.

Stage 3 will be a list of links and unless I get bored Stage 4 will be an attempt at a timeline.

Version 0.1

This is a work in progress. A map of the various websites and groupings involved in the on-going internet kerfuffle over the Hugo Awards. Most symbols don’t really mean anything. Groupings of bloggers under a heading in bold. Crossed swords represent places where a notable discussion/argument etc occurred. This may include Brad Torgersen explaining what he intended or some kind of deceleration of intent (e.g. a boycott) or somebody pointing out what somebody else had done.

Fans swim and sail where they please in all the blue bits. The left hand side is multiple islands because of the variety of responses. I’d think somebody who has critiqued ‘both’ sides would be Eric Flint {on the right of the map because of his association with Baen but on the left in terms of politics}

I respect the work you’ve done, and your cartographer’s willingness to listen. Nice job.

One key relationship that I think is not well communicated by the map is the place of Superversive Sci-Fi. That commitment links closely to Sarah Hoyt’s “Human Wave,” and forms the main plank of agreement that bridges Vox/Rabid and the Sad Puppies. Indeed, without this line from Sarah to Jagi/John to Vox, I don’t think the Sads and Rabids even have much common interest. It’s really key. John Wright and Jagi Lamplighter are also personal bridges between the 2 groups, given their pacific tendencies + John’s dual relationship with Tor and Castalia.

Showing this would require a rearrangement of the map. Hear me out and see what you think:

* Mad Genius goes to the far north of Sadland
* Sarah moves down, just under the word Sadland
* “Human Wave” goes just under Sarah
* Rabidonia is mirror-flipped horizontally, and maybe broken in 2
* An isthmus or bridging island chain of the Superversives connects Sadland with Rabidonia. The chain is Sarah / Human Wave / Superversive / Jagi / John (&BRM?) / Vox
* Suprerversive SF in particular is properly back from the conflict zone (Eastern edge), since they don’t spend much time on it. They’re about building stuff, and are doing their own thing.
* Vox and Rabidonia is pushed forward (West) into the sea of conflict near File 770 (which they do fight with a lot). This is very much where they belong, since they are in the middle of the battles all around them – and get pulled in even when uninvolved.
* Bayou Renaissance Man is an interesting case. Anti-apartheid activist, prison pastor, military experience. His background places him in the Sads. His support of the Tor boycott, while the Sads largely demurred, places him in Rabidonia. He probably sits next to John Wright in any revised map.
* Kate the Impaler, who will lead Sad Puppies in 2016, should be on the map
* Col. Tom Kratman deserves a place in Rabidonia

Thanks – yes I struggled with were to put Superversive in general. I decided that asca generic name it worked well as a description of the general territory that contains Wright and Lamplighter. It would then be odd to put SuperversiveSF somewhere else. Sci-Phi was also difficult to place. However I didn’t want Rabidonia to just be Vox Day. Hence the mountain range between the narrow land of Voxpopili and the broader land marked as Superversive.
As with the non-puppy side it is the seas that are were the fans are. Puppies of all kinds swim in the sea of puppies (and beyond) and so need not be either strictly sad or rabid.

L Jagi Lamplighter is not part of the Rabid Puppies movement in any way, shape or form. She is not even, technically, a Sad Puppy, and has no association with them, aside from being my wife.

If you click through the links you yourself provided you will notice the remarkable difference between her philosophy and approach, my own, that of Larry Correia, and certainly that of Vox Day.

She is kind and polite; Correia is kind and impolite; I am unkind and polite; Vox Day is unkind and impolite.

Likewise the four goals each seeks differ as abruptly. She seeks peaceful reconciliation with all parties; Correia seeks to make the point that political bias exists in the SF community, and otherwise to be left alone; I seek to restore the glory lost from the SF community when the Morlocks unloaded their politically correct brain-excrement into the waters, hence would welcome surrender from your side if it were offered honorably, just as I accepted the apology from Irene Gallo; Vox Day does not seek your surrender nor will he accept it.

I humbly suggest these four approaches are different, and should be reflected on the map.

The left (and bigger) half of Rabidonia has been labelled Superversive and a spooky mountain range (and tank) has been placed between it and the Superversive half. Naturally as an explorer I may have charted some places as single landmasses which are actually islands due to me not sailing down a particular strait.

I did kind of wonder what sort of thing is ‘brain excrement’. Presumably it is the stuff the brain excretes but purely biologically that is just the normal by products of metabolising things. So metaphorically what is it that the brain excretes? I think that could only be communicated-thoughts.

It’s interesting to note that in “The Time Machine” the Morlocks were the people who actually got the work done, maintaining all the technology that the parasitical Eloi took advantage of, with no understanding of how it worked, or even of the fact that they were mere parasites on the efforts of the Morlocks. I’m sure the Eloi would have been quite resentful if they had been smart enough to understand just how useless they were.

Sci Phi Journal is not Castalia related. Castalia sells the magazine through their store. You might as well call the magazine “amazon related”, it would make as much sense. Apart from selling it and sending me money occasionally Vox has exactly nothing to do with the magazine.

Also, John is perfectly polite, he simply doesn’t mix words and speaks the simple truth. Calling political correctness “brain excrement”, is a compliment in the grand scheme of things. It is a nihilistic intellectual poison that utterly destroys the imbibers ability to to reason.

I think if it was one of the select things that Amazon sold, I might very well say it was Amazon related – but I think you maybe selling yourselves short. While obviously there are deep negative associations with Vox Day because of his, shall we say ‘outspokeness’- I think one of the strong commonalities between yourselves, Wright, Day and some others is not the end point of your views (which I agree are diverse) but this interest in philosophical foundations for your views – with a particular emphasis on Aristotle and Aquinas. That isn’t 100% absent in what I call ‘Sadland’ but it would be hard to spot. At one point I was tempted to call it Scholastia but I didn’t think people would get it (and it sounds too much like the publisher Scholastic).
However, I shall amend the key 🙂

I am not seeking to distance myself from Vox. We are business associates. I wouldn’t call us friends we don’t talk enough but our interactions are friendly. He just had nothig to do with sci phi journal.